Ice fishing with flies

[Chaz]

Anyone here fish through the ice and use flies with their bait?

 

[JackM]

It's tough to hit the hole from more than 25 feet, so I just use a tip-up instead.

 

[FiveWeight]

I have done it with huge streamers for pickerel/pike/baitfish in NH. Used them like a jig. Beadheads work also.

 

[LongWader]

You would need something that sinks to help you stay in contact with the lure so you can feel what is going on and a weighted tear drop jig can be used to imitate zooplankton or a bug, or you can work a spoon or jiggling rapala to imitate a minnow. Most folks sweeten the tear drop jig with a meal worm or wax worm and wiggle it or raise it slowly up or down enticingly like the movement of plankton and bugs. Other options are small super soft bug like plastics that are made specifically for ice fishing and mounting on tear drops and spoons. Other than that you can use a tip up baited with a wax worm, meal worm, or a minnow. You could try a fly on a short piece of light mono or fluro attacted to a spoon, but I have found tear drops generally work better.

 

[ebroesicke]

get a kastmaster spoon, remove hook, tie on 4-6" of 2# mono where hook was, tie on beadhead of your choice at end of line, drop down hole, jiggle, slay panfish.

 

[JeffK]

Nymphs with tungsten beads work fairly well for panfish. Fly tiers create nymph patterns that are subtler than most small jigs or lures and can work better over pressured/neutral fish. Tungsten beads really help make a dense pattern that sinks quickly and is heavy enough to maintain contact with. Use soft materials that have some life when fished very slowly.